Race Recap: Baja 400 🥉
PRICE AND WEEL DELIVER TEAM AUSTRALIA THIRD PLACE FINISH AT THE BAJA 400 🇲🇽
The third round of the SCORE International Race Series proved a successful outing for the Team Australia crew of Paul Weel, Toby Price, and Brent Bauman, with the trio navigating a challenging circuit at the Baja 400 to capture a hard-fought third-place finish.
Price began the event by scorching to yet another Pole Position as the #46 truck is becoming well known for its qualifying speed, placing the team in the best position possible to capitalise on the intense upcoming race.
A great start and a solid opening section had the crew comfortable at the front of the field, before beginning to put the hammer down once they reached the coastline. A couple of minor issues fell upon the #46 truck as the pace was super fast at the front, with the team ultimately losing the lead during a pit stop for repairs.
From there, the crew posted a calculated drive to capture a well-earned third-place finish, as the consistency that the team has been chasing continues to develop.
“It was a tough day,” mentioned Paul Weel. “Bryce (Menzies) pushed us all day. We had troubles at around mile 90 and things got a bit difficult. He got by us in one of our pits and their guys did an awesome job. We pushed hard, but our steering wheel and our key box were really bad towards the end of the race. At the end of the day, we finished. It was a pretty tight race between us, Bryce and Alan (Ampudia), all three teams did an awesome job. I got in at around race mile 280 and my section was very tight. We were in Bryce’s dust and that made things challenging.”
“Baja 400, done and dusted!” commented Toby Price. “We had a really good morning, picked up a nice cruisy pace and tried to make dust. Once we got out to the coast we pushed a bit more realising that the wind wasn’t in our favour as it was holding the dust around. A couple of issues started by then with the front diff and a couple of other minor issues that hampered the end result. Other than that, we had a great battle with Bryce (Menzies) all morning pushing a fast pace which was super rad. Winding up back on the box in P3 and some good points, but at the end of the day, we don’t come here to finish second or third. Paul and Brent did an amazing job on their end, our consistency is building, now onto the 1000.”
The Baja 1000 marks the conclusion of the 2024 SCORE International Championship and runs from November 12 to 17.